18.1.06

''The Arab Israeli public is fed up, and it is demanding recognition of its uniqueness as a national group that has regional continuity. The Arab-Israeli public is part of the Arab world, and it is untenable that after every journey to the Haj in Saudi Arabia, we will find ourselves under investigation and arrest because we worshiped next to an Iranian pilgrim. We are natives of the region, and we have in it ties of religion, language, culture, family and friendship. The Jewish ghetto in the Middle East is a Jewish choice; the Arabs are not part of it. The time has come for the government and security institutions to internalize this fact, even if this internalization entails changing a law that for us is draconic. ''